


A Secret That Never Should Have Been Told

by afteriwake



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal really should have kept his mouth shut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Secret That Never Should Have Been Told

Mal looked at the mass of empty cups on the bar counter and then looked at his crew. Only River seemed very sober, but that may have been because River didn't drink anything the entire night. Even though he himself felt a little tipsy, he was nowhere as bad as everyone else.

How he was going to get his entire crew minus Inara back on the ship was something his slightly drunk brain was still trying to figure out when Inara waltzed in, took one look at the crew, and sighed.

"Mal," she said with a shake of her head. "Everyone's drunk."

"I reckon they are, on account of how many empty cups are here," he said with a grin. Maybe he was more drunk than he'd originally thought. "Still tryin' to figure out how to get us all back on the ship."

"Well, you don't seem to be as drunk as Jayne, and since he's the heaviest he's the one we should worry about." She nodded over to Jayne, who was sprawled in one of the chairs by a table.

"We could just leave him," he suggested, looking around for a cup with some liquid refreshment left in it. "We can get another shooting-type guy for the crew."

Inara rolled her eyes and then stepped closer to him. "Mal..." Then she stopped and threw her hands up in the air. "How much did he have to drink, anyway? I never thought I'd see him passed out in a chair."

Mal shrugged. "Don't know. You'll have to ask him." He gave up trying to find more alcohol and looked at her. "Keeping him around real important to you?"

Inara nodded. "Because if you leave him here, you're going to regret it when you sober up. He's crew, remember?"

"Crew that tried to sell Simon and River out," he muttered to himself.

"Excuse me?" Inara said, her eyes going wide.

"Nothing, never mind," he said, waving her off.

Inara looked at Mal, then looked at Jayne. "He tried to turn them into the Alliance, didn't he?"

Mal nodded slowly. "Back on Ariel."

"Hwoon dahn," she said quietly, looking at Jayne. Then she turned back to Mal. "I'll help you get everyone else back on board, but if you want him back on the ship you'll have to do it yourself."

Mal looked at the determined look on her face and nodded slowly. "I can do that." Inara left, beginning to rouse Zoe and Kaylee with River’s help, and it hit Mal in a flash that maybe he shouldn't have told Inara. But what was done was done, and they'd all have to deal with the fallout later. Right now though, he thought to himself as he went to go rouse Jayne, he had bigger problems. Jayne was still crew, and you didn't just leave crew behind, no matter how big a bastard they were.


End file.
